44 . THE QUEENSLAND INCIDENT OF 1866
suddenly and to such depths could colonial governments be
plunged by the loss of their credit.
Nor is it necessary to examine this minor crisis in statistical
detail. It will suffice that the course of events followed strictly
the path of most Australian crises before or since. Swollen
imports, consisting for the most part of railway iron, rolling-
stock, and iron piping, came into the colony; and, since the
greater part of the loans went as wages in constructional work,
a false prosperity was induced which, considering the circum-
stances of the infant colony, degenerated into public and private
extravagance of the most unwise kind. The sudden drying of
the stream of credit proved how unproductive for immediate
purposes was the use to which much of the borrowed capital
had been put by the government of the day.
The second incident to which attention was drawn at the
beginning of this chapter happened in the next decade. In spite
of the decline in the total yield from gold-mining this phase
might almost be called the mineral period. In Queensland,
however, the gold yield increased from half a million in
1872 to 2} millions in 1888, as a result of the developments
at Mount Morgan, Gympie, and Rockhampton. Tasmania,
after the discoveries at Beaconsfield, Lefroy, and Mathinna
during the same period, produced gold to the value of over
two millions; while Western Australia by 1880 was yielding
an annual value of nearly half a million, to be increased very
rapidly a few years later by the discoveries at Kalgoorlie and
Coolgardie.
It was to the discovery and development of mineral deposits
other than gold that the period owed its progress. Mining for
tin and copper became of great importance in New South Wales,
and after 1885 silver came into great prominence, a mineral that
by 1890 was yielding a return of about £3,000,000 a year. The
copper mines of South Australia were of increasing importance
to that state, while both tin and copper meant much to Queens-
land’s prosperity. The discovery of the famous Mount Bischoff
tin deposits,! coming at a time of industrial stagnation, helped
Tasmania in a like manner; and this was merely the prelude to
1 This was the massive deposit which James Smith stumbled upon in 1871, and
in the early years it yielded almost fabulous returns of tin. In 1885 alone over
4,000 tons of the metal were obtained.